Telia and Akamai announce strategic relationship to deliver enhanced web services

Telia and Akamai announce strategic relationship to deliver enhanced web services throughout Europe Technology cooperation enables Telia to deliver the most popular content and applications locally to ISPs and their end users with increased speed and performance. STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN and CAMBRIDGE, MA -- January 20, 2000 -- Telia, the leading supplier of telecom-based information services in the Nordic/Baltic region, and Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ: AKAM), the foremost provider of global, high-performance services for the delivery of Internet content and applications, today announced a strategic alliance to enhance the delivery of Internet content and applications through Europe's leading backbone network. Akamai's services improve the speed, performance and reliability of Web properties and enable the creation of more engaging content. The collaborative efforts of Telia and Akamai underscore both companies' commitment to offering content providers and end users a better Internet experience. Through the deployment of Akamai servers across Telia's network, Telia's ISP customers and their end users will benefit from the capabilities of Akamai's powerful content and application delivery services for enhanced speed, performance, and reliability of their Web sites. This relationship is important in expanding Akamai's global network through Europe as well as in serving Telia's ISPs and their customers more efficiently. "We see Akamai as a key component for both our international backbone and our Scandinavian broadband project. Telia was one of the first European backbone providers to bring US content to Europe and for us, partnering with Akamai is a natural next step to expanding to next-generation services. At the same time, Telia is launching one of the largest broadband projects in Europe, and to be able to attract and retain customers, Telia needs to deliver content faster and more reliably. We are convinced that Akamai's service will help us achieve this objective," said Stig-Espen Dolvik, vice president, Telia Network Services. "We are proud to partner with established telecom leaders such as Telia to expand our global network and broaden the reach of our scaleable, value- added services platform," said Jonathan Seelig, vice president, strategy and corporate development, Akamai. "This partnership is a win-win for both companies. Putting Akamai's servers in Telia's network properties allows it to maintain the highest levels of performance while expanding its global reach. For Akamai, we gain additional reach in Europe. As Telia's network continues to grow throughout all of Europe, Akamai looks forward to expanding its technology cooperation with Telia." Telia joins more than 100 different networks all over the world being accelerated by Akamai today. Through the Akamai Accelerated Network Program, network providers receive Akamai servers at no charge. By placing popular Web content inside of Telia's network, Telia is able to cut bandwidth expense and serve content faster to its ISP subscribers. Akamai's comprehensive, multi-carrier network is the largest globally distributed network for Internet content delivery with servers in more than 35 countries, including recently added emerging high-transit international countries such as Argentina, Brazil, China, Mexico, Norway, Portugal and Turkey. Akamai's network provider partners have access to Akamai's open, scaleable value-added services platform for the creation and delivery of differentiated services for their Web-centric customers. About Akamai Akamai Technologies is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has offices in San Mateo, California. Akamai provides global Internet content and application delivery services for more than 200 customers, improving Web site speed and reliability and enabling richer, more engaging Web site content. Currently, Akamai has deployed 1700 servers in 30 countries across 100 different telecommunications networks. Akamai (pronounced AH kuh my) is Hawaiian for intelligent, clever and cool. About Telia Telia is the leading supplier of telecom-based information services in the Nordic/Baltic region. At the same time, "seamless" pan-European and global services are being realized through powerful alliances and partnerships in Europe and around the world. Annual turnover 1998 reached 51 240 MSEK and the number of employees amounted to approx. 30 600. The release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, the dependence on Akamai's Internet content delivery service, a failure of its network infrastructure, the complexity of its service and the networks on which the service is deployed, the failure to obtain access to transmission capacity and other factors that are discussed in the Company's Registration Statement on Form S-1 and other documents periodically filed with the SEC. For further information please contact: Telia Contacts: Stig-Espen Dolvik Vice President Telia Network Services +46 8 456 89 04 stig-espen.d.dolvik@telia.se Akamai Technologies Contacts: Caryn Converse Jeff Young Marketing Manager Marketing Manager 617-250-4661 617-250-3913 converse@akamai.com jyoung@akamai.com ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/01/20/20000120BIT00370/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/01/20/20000120BIT00370/bit0002.pdf